Which country has a colder winter: Brazil or Canada?

I had a bunch of Brazilians over for dinner last night and a couple of them were describing how ‘cold’ it got during a Brazilian winter. They talked about how it would get down to 2 or 3 degrees Celsius and there was no heat in their houses. They were describing the dozen blankets and how they slept in socks to keep warm. Another one said the the cold, concrete buildings they live in would hold the cold in during much of the day and it didn’t warm up much.

Then one said something pretty amazing: “If you take out the few minutes a day you are outside – Canadian winters are warmer than Brazilian ones.” She said you turn up the heat to 23 or so and that is where it stays all day and all night. Your office is warm. Every place you go is warm. During a cold Brazilian winter day – houses don’t have heat.

These specific Brazilians lived Sao Paulo – south so they were not talking about the more northern Brazilian cities which are basically warm all year round.

But it was an interesting perspective – we should try to work this into the promotional materials for new immigrants. Something like “Consistently warm temperatures all day/all night/all year” with a little asterisk that says in small print – for the bulk of the time you are inside.